New Website - Some Advice Needed!

Brendan Flowers

I'm in the process setting up a new Health and Fitness website. I dont want to say too much about it just yet but it has unique features and I'd hope to submit it to some of the web awards later this year. The website is very user friendly, easy to navigate and fully responsive. It's an information website and so I'll be using Google Adsense as this will be main source of revenue for the first 2 years of the site being live.

Would ads have a negative affect on how the site would be judged if entered into these awards? Is there anything else I'd need to be aware of in terms of how a site will be jugded?

Also can any website be entered into the likes of the Spider Awards or the Web Awards? Or is it only open to newly created sites?

KonFusion

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

Would ads have a negative affect on how the site would be judged if entered into these awards? Is there anything else I'd need to be aware of in terms of how a site will be jugded?

If you think that's the case then add them in after the awards?

Having judged for a reputable Irish awards, I can tell you that I've never marked a site down because they had advertising - Though I've definitely marked a site down that had gaudy/annoying ads, where the advertising detracted from the overall experience of the site.

I'll let other people answer the other questions, as I've an extremely biased, jaded view of awards in general.

Who's building the site for you? Is it yourself or an agency? For some awards, this'll be a large factor in whether you win or not....

(and there I was trying to be level-headed, impartial & unbiased... oh well)

Brendan Flowers

KonFusion wrote: »

If you think that's the case then add them in after the awards?

Having judged for a reputable Irish awards, I can tell you that I've never marked a site down because they had advertising - Though I've definitely marked a site down that had gaudy/annoying ads, where the advertising detracted from the overall experience of the site.

I'll let other people answer the other questions, as I've an extremely biased, jaded view of awards in general.

Who's building the site for you? Is it yourself or an agency? For some awards, this'll be a large factor in whether you win or not....

(and there I was trying to be level-headed, impartial & unbiased... oh well)

Thanks for the info! Take the Spider Awards for example, these are in November and and it wouldn't really be viable for me to wait until then to display ads.

I'm using a company to do the bulk of the development but I am also involved? I didnt realise this would be a factor with awards. I just assumed that the awards were for the site and not the individual and as such it wouldnt matter if someone else developed it.

KonFusion

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

I just assumed that the awards were for the site and not the individual and as such it wouldn't matter if someone else developed it.

*bites tongue*

Let's just say that in certain awards in Ireland, certain agencies have always won a certain category.

Trojan

A cynic might suggest that you don't need to worry about the actual website, just make sure you buy enough seats at the awards night.

tricky D

I'd advise you forget about awards; as alluded to above they are a semi-closed shop and usually only winnable if you buy pricey seats. The credibility of them is very limited. If a site wins an award well and good but it's certainly not something I've ever seen in a client request. If I did I'd be looking to cross that out or simply ignore it on the basis that the focus of a presence is about serving your clients and their customers/audience needs, not awards.

In relation to displaying ads, they're not perceived with much positivity due to the likes of banner blindness, overload, distraction, blocking, etc. but that's the trade-off when monetising your site.

mneylon

Building a website solely to win awards seems like a rather odd strategy.

Winning awards for your site is great - assuming the awards are reputable (and you can see from previous posts that not all awards are viewed in a positive light)

But an award won't pay the bills

Or drive traffic to your site
Or much else

Focus on the website's content and building traffic and revenue.

If you also get awards along the way - great.

Joe Doe

As above, the only awards you'll want on the office mantelpiece are proper ones like the 'The Webby', SxSW, The Awwwards etc

Adwords makes Ads-sense, light and efficient load. All the cool cats have AdBlockers installed these days, so won't see many fancy Flash/Gifs.
The older generation on IE6/7 might enjoy the pictures. If you serve banners locally they should get seen, don't animate them though as less is more.

Brendan Flowers

Apologies - I didnt realise my post gave the impression that I was building the website solely to win awards! Due to it being a site that has unique features, extremely user friendly and fully responsive I thought it might be worth putting it forward for awards to possibly gain a bit of extra publicity.

I didnt know there was so much politics involved in these awards. Is there many awards in Ireland that would be considered reputable? The main 2 I found was the Web Awards and the Spiders, but Im guessing now that at least one of these might not carry much credibility!

smash

KonFusion wrote: »

*bites tongue*

Let's just say that in certain awards in Ireland, certain agencies have always won a certain category.

How many tables would you like to take this year? wink wink, nudge nudge

KonFusion

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

I didnt know there was so much politics involved in these awards.

There is nothing in Ireland without politics

http://webawards.ie/, http://smeawards.ie/ are generally viewed in a good light. DMA's perhaps, but your window of entry for 2015 has passed.

Whoever is building/designing the site should be able to point you in the right direction if they're based in Ireland.

Keep in mind, depending on the company you've worked with, you could/should be able to get them to fork the potential cost of these awards, since they're also to gain (you'll see in a lot of awards that it's the service provider who claims the award, rather than the client). Entering all awards yourself could also be quite pricy.

Other awards which might apply to you, which I post without comment, are:

http://kinsalesharks.com/
http://eircomspiders.ie/
http://www.netvisionary.ie/
& maybe http://www.idi-design.ie/

Hope that helps.

smash

KonFusion wrote: »

Keep in mind, depending on the company you've worked with, you could/should be able to get them to fork the potential cost of these awards

You expect that an agency should fork out a few thousand to buy seats and donate to these awards just so OP can give themselves a slap on the back? Where's the profit for the company here?

Brendan Flowers

KonFusion wrote: »

There is nothing in Ireland without politics

http://webawards.ie/, http://smeawards.ie/ are generally viewed in a good light. DMA's perhaps, but your window of entry for 2015 has passed.

Whoever is building/designing the site should be able to point you in the right direction if they're based in Ireland.

Keep in mind, depending on the company you've worked with, you could/should be able to get them to fork the potential cost of these awards, since they're also to gain (you'll see in a lot of awards that it's the service provider who claims the award, rather than the client). Entering all awards yourself could also be quite pricy.

Other awards which might apply to you, which I post without comment, are:

http://kinsalesharks.com/
http://eircomspiders.ie/
http://www.netvisionary.ie/
& maybe http://www.idi-design.ie/

Hope that helps.

Cheers, thats a big help! Just one more thing to ask if you dont mind! The awards that I would have missed the entry for, can I still enter them next year? Is there an rules that a site has to be launched after a certain date or can any website be entered any year?

Kenny Logins

Create your own awards badges and slap them on.

smash

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

Cheers, thats a big help! Just one more thing to ask if you dont mind! The awards that I would have missed the entry for, can I still enter them next year? Is there an rules that a site has to be launched after a certain date or can any website be entered any year?

You know that more important than awards are customer referrals and positive social media reviews. Work on a usable platform that benefits the audience and you'll see growth. The only people who pay attention to these awards, are the people who enter the awards.

KonFusion

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

Is there an rules that a site has to be launched after a certain date or can any website be entered any year?

Not that I'm aware of. You'll need to check the terms for each one though to be sure.